MicroStrategy reports loss of $53 million, stock plunges

MicroStrategy reported a net loss of $53.1 million, or 3.09 a share, in its first-quarter earnings report but plans to buy more Bitcoin later in the year. Following the news, the stock of the business analytics software company plunged over 16% in the afternoon.

In the first quarter, the firm suffered a $191.6 million loss on the impairment of digital assets, an increase of ten times from the first quarter of 2023. According to the company’s filing, revenue also fell 5.5% compared to the first quarter of 2023, to $115.2 million.

A loss like this is the result of the company not yet adopting the new fair value accounting standard for digital assets. The company is the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, and by using the traditional accounting method, the company marked $5.07 billion at $23,680 per Bitcoin instead of $15.2 billion if it had used the fair value method.

Founded by former dot-com entrepreneur Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy has long advocated for Bitcoin, which is now part of its business model. During the first quarter, the company raised $1.5 billion from two convertible note debt offerings to acquire another 25,250 Bitcoin, bringing the company’s total holdings to 214,400 Bitcoin — worth approximately $13.6 billion. The firm owns almost 1% of the 19.7 million tokens in Bitcoin’s total circulating supply.